tanuki

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese (たぬき) (tanuki, raccoon dog).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /təˈnʊkɪ/
  • (US) IPA(key): /tɑˈnuki/, /ˈtɑnuki/
  • Rhymes: -ʊki, -uːki
  • Hyphenation: ta‧nuki

Noun

tanuki (plural tanuki or tanukis)

  1. A raccoon dog, Nyctereutes viverrinus.
    Synonym: mangut
    • 2023 May 28, Nadia Asparouhova, “Remembering GitHub's Office, a Monument to Tech Culture”, in Wired[1], →ISSN:
      At my onboarding, I was told that one of GitHub's employees identified as a tanuki, a Japanese raccoon dog—this was fine.
  2. (Japanese mythology) A folkloric figure in the form of a tanuki, regarded as a shapeshifter and renowned for its enormous scrotum and testicles.
  3. The joining of a living bonsai tree to a piece of dead wood for aesthetic effect.

Anagrams

Cebuano

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese (たぬき, tanuki, raccoon dog).

Pronunciation

  • Hyphenation: ta‧nu‧ki

Noun

tanuki

  1. a raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)

Japanese

Romanization

tanuki

  1. Rōmaji transcription of たぬき
  2. Rōmaji transcription of タヌキ

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Japanese (たぬき, tanuki, raccoon dog).

Noun

tanuki m (plural tanukis)

  1. raccoon dog; tanuki (Nyctereutes procyonoides, a canid of East Asia)